


a child's expectations

by werealldreaming



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Good Parent Plo Koon, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn's A+ Parenting, this is not realistic and is not meant to be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:39:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28331739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/werealldreaming/pseuds/werealldreaming
Summary: The meditation room isn’t empty, when Plo and Mace enter.That normally wouldn’t be an issue—the time slot before this one had also been filled by a Master-Padawan pair, and Plo is well aware that those can run long sometimes.But there’s only one person in the room, not a pair, and whoever it is has themself curled into a ball in one corner of the room, leaking distress into the Force.(in which Plo encounters a hurt Obi-Wan, and does something about it.)
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Plo Koon
Comments: 22
Kudos: 384





	a child's expectations

**Author's Note:**

> someone on discord asked for qui-gon getting punched, so... have this, i guess?

The meditation room isn’t empty, when Plo and Mace enter.

That normally wouldn’t be an issue—the time slot before this one had also been filled by a Master-Padawan pair, and Plo is well aware that those can run long sometimes.

But there’s only one person in the room, not a pair, and whoever it is has themself curled into a ball in one corner of the room, leaking distress into the Force.

Plo and Mace exchange a glance. Plo moves over and settles down a few feet away from the boy, careful not to startle him. “Hello,” he says. “Padawan Kenobi, isn’t it?”

The boy looks up, revealing red eyes and tear-streaked cheeks, and nods. “Sorry,” he says, almost too quietly for Plo to hear. He glances over at Mace, who is still standing closer to the entrance of the room and quickly says, “I can go.”

“You don’t have to,” Plo assures. “Are you alright? You seem pretty upset.”

Kenobi looks back down, staring at his knees. “It’s stupid.”

“I sincerely doubt that.”

“It is,” he insists. “I couldn’t—and I got mad even though—Master Qui-Gon said—and I’m just  _ stupid _ .” He presses his sleeves to his eyes and starts to cry.

“You’re not stupid,” Plo says. Kenobi’s stilted half-explanation hasn’t really cleared anything up, but between the mention of his Master and the fact that the man’s not actually here, he doesn’t think asking about him will help matters.

Mace isn’t quite as tactful, though he keeps his voice gentle as he asks, “What did your Master say?”

“He—I messed up the exercise and he said to—to come back when I could put myself together and do it right.” Kenobi takes a loud breath, closer to a sob than anything else, and continues, “And I can’t—I don’t—I’m too stupid to understand what he wants.”

Plo’s concern increases. It’s painfully obvious that Kenobi genuinely believes it when he says he’s unintelligent, and he has no idea why Jinn thinks that leaving the boy alone will be an effective teaching strategy.

“Which exercise was it?” Mace asks. “Perhaps one of us can help you.”

“Um. Something about—about being aware of all of my senses? Feeling everything my body is sensing. I don’t know.”

That doesn’t sound good. Plo knows of a few exercises like that, but none are ones he would ask a Padawan to do alone, especially if they had never done it before. Awareness of the senses, beyond the mindfulness they commonly practice, could easily be overwhelming.

Again Plo wonders what Jinn had been thinking, when he’d left Obi-Wan here.

“I know the concept,” Mace says slowly, clearly as concerned as Plo is. “It’s not an easy technique. Most people have difficulty with it, even with practice. Would you like me to help walk you through it?”

Kenobi shrugs. He’s still crying, and though his shields have gone up now that the kid’s no longer alone, Plo can’t imagine he’s feeling much better.

“How about this,” he says. “Take a break for a while. Drink some water. If you’re feeling up for it, Mace can help you practice. And I will go speak to Master Jinn.”

“You don’t have to,” Kenobi says quickly. “You wanted to use this room, didn’t you? I can just—practice on my own. It’s fine.”

“We want to help you,” Plo says. “You’ve done nothing wrong.”

Kenobi chews on his bottom lip, but he doesn’t seem to want to refuse them, either. “Okay,” he finally says. “I—just, Master Qui-Gon won’t like that I bothered you about this.”

“You are not bothering us,” Plo repeats. “And I will make sure Master Jinn understands that.”

-

It doesn’t take him long to find the man—he’s in the quarters he shares with Obi-Wan. He’s quick to answer the door when Plo knocks, and smiles when he sees him.

“Master Koon,” he says, “I can’t say I was expecting you.”

“It was a spontaneous decision,” Plo says.

“Well, come in,” Jinn says, opening the door wider and moving back into the rooms. “Would you like some tea?”

“No, thank you. I’m afraid I’m just here to ask you about something that came to my attention.”

Jinn raises an eyebrow. “Well, I can’t imagine what that could be. I thought my last mission report was perfectly acceptable.”

Jinn’s last mission report had been so vague that the Council had given up trying to create a full list of follow-up questions, and instead had just commed the dignitaries he and Obi-Wan had been working with to find out what had happened. But that’s not related to Plo’s current task, so he doesn’t mention it.

“Well,” he says slowly, “I ran into Obi-Wan recently, and he seemed to be struggling with a Force exercise you assigned him. And I was quite surprised that you left him to work through it on his own.”

“Ah,” Jinn says. He picks up his own half-finished cup of tea, takes a sip, then says, “Well, it’s less about the exercise itself, you know. Obi-Wan was getting rather worked up about it, and I needed him to understand that that’s not something I will tolerate.”

That…clears up nothing. “What do you mean by worked up?”

“Oh, you know. Frustration, snapping at me. Acting self-pitying. He’s a smart boy, but he can get rather emotional about things that don’t warrant such a reaction.”

“I’ve found that when people get emotional, there’s a reason behind it,” Plo says. Nevermind the fact that nothing he’s listed is particularly unreasonable, especially for a young Padawan still in the process of learning how to manage their emotions. Or the fact that he wouldn’t describe Obi-Wan as  _ self-pitying _ so much as  _ self-flagellating _ , in a way that deeply concerns him.

Jinn nods. “Yes, but Obi-Wan’s reactions can get out of hand. I’ve been trying to teach him to be more centered, but it doesn’t seem to be working.”

“And you thought that leaving your distressed Padawan alone to try to work through the thing making them upset would teach him that?”

“Well, of course,” Jinn says. “I can’t have him thinking that behavior like his is acceptable.”

“Again,” Plo says, very slowly, “You thought that  _ leaving _ would teach him that?”

“Yes?” Jinn at least seems to understand what Plo is getting at now, and is starting to look uncomfortable. He does not, however, back down. “I am showing him that I won’t put up with him acting in a way that he shouldn’t.”

“What you’re showing him is that you will not hesitate to abandon your Padawan if they don’t live up to your expectations.”

“Well, I told him he can come back when he’s ready to act appropriately,” Jinn says, and Plo can’t hold himself back anymore. He steps forward, grabs the front of Jinn’s shirt, and shakes him.

“That  _ isn’t good enough _ .”

Jinn chokes, trying to twist out of his grasp. Plo shoves him away, letting him stumble and crash into the coffee table. “What in Force’s name are you doing?”

“Making a point,” Plo snaps. “I will be bringing this up with the Council, Master Jinn. I intend to have your relationship with Padawan Kenobi evaluated, because nothing I have heard today makes me believe that your relationship is a positive one.”

Nothing he’s heard about their relationship in the past does, either—quite a lot of the details of their early years together are classified, but Plo has heard some of the things others have let slip, and all of it is concerning.

Jinn gapes. “Obi-Wan and I work together perfectly well!”

“Well then,” Plo says, “You can prove that to the Council.”

He turns and leaves. There’s only one half of this Master-Padawan pair he wants to concern himself with right now, and it’s not the Master.

**Author's Note:**

> this is just self-indulgent wish fulfillment, but if you enjoyed, i'd love to hear about it in a comment <3 don't forget to take care of yourself! drink some water and stretch if you need to
> 
> you can also find me on tumblr at [ternaryflower53](https://ternaryflower53.tumblr.com), if that's a thing you're interested in


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